President Bush has quietly signed an executive order allowing civilians to be tried by military tribunals. This may be outrageous.

I say "may be" because the degree to which we should be outraged depends on the details of this not-yet-released executive order. Does the executive order apply only to non-U.S. citizens, as some news reports say? Perhaps it applies only abroad, to Al Qaeda saboteurs trying to blow up U.S. military bases? Does it apply solely to illegal immigrants? If it applies to people living in or visiting the U.S. legally, what happened to our Sixth Amendment right "to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury?"

Look up APPLICATION OF YAMASHITA, 327 U.S. 1 (1946), http://laws.findlaw.com/us/327/1.html <a href="http://laws.findlaw.com/us/327/1.html>Application of Yamashita, 327 U.S. 1 (1946)</a> Read it with an eye to due process and particularly look at the dissent. Not encouraging at all. --- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt@coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per week) Matthew Gaylor, (614) 313-5722 ICQ: 106212065 Archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/ **************************************************************************